According to the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council (PCC), there is no law that requires the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to transmit electoral results electronically.
Dele Alake, the PCC’s Special Adviser on Media and Communications, made the announcement at a news conference in Abuja on Friday.
According to the APC stalwart, electoral results should be transmitted at the discretion of the electoral body.
He insisted that the Electoral Act 2022 contains no mandatory provision for the transmission of results.
He insisted that the Labour Party (LP) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)’s reliance on Section 38 of the Electoral Act 2022 would not suffice in court.
He said;
The complaint over the electronic transmission of election results is not supported by law.
Section 38 of the Electoral Act 2022 relied upon by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party (LP) to challenge the result of the Feb. 25 presidential election has nothing to do with the transmission of election results.
Section 60, sub-section 2 of the Act deals with the transmission of results and it is at the discretion of INEC. The Act does not contain any mandatory provision regarding the transmission of results.
In any case, the process of transmitting results from polling units, whether real-time, two days later or at any time, cannot in any way change the results that have been announced.
Speaking further, he insisted that what was important was the counting of votes in the presence of party agents and the hearing of voters.
He maintained that it was preposterous to claim that the uploading results would lead to the manipulation of figures.
In any case, the process of transmitting results from polling units, whether real-time, two days later or at any time, cannot in any way change the results that have been announced, he said.